[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
hello I was fortunate enough to take two
semesters abroad before I finished high
school I went on the semester at sea
program which provides classes aboard a
ship as it sails across the world I
would do my classwork and then someone
would paste Italy onto the ocean outside
and I had four days to run about and
absorb as much as I could before it was
replaced the next week with Croatia and
for a while that was my life and it was
magical and I loved every moment but
after the 12th week on my second voyage
I was quite suddenly exhausted grateful
of course but tired so I began
travelling badly I would look outside
and see the new world and immediately
began judging the area I would compare
it to other countries and rank aspects
of it and lists I had made up I wasn’t
learning
I was categorizing the cause of this
judgmental attitude I feel was a
microcosm for what many of us
experienced over many years we reach a
point where we are tired or just
arrogant and we – now a lot of incoming
signal I found that in understanding why
I did this myself that I was
disregarding news articles that
suggested they might disagree with me or
even advice from close friends and while
this attitude can be enormous ly useful
if we want to get work done quickly it
can be difficult to reverse this habit
when new information comes along that
could broaden our perspectives
I found help for this problem in my
studies at Saint John’s College which
provides a unique curriculum called the
great books program it demands reading a
large amount of the greatest Western
works from the last 2,500 years from
math to theology to science
Theology I was interested because for
the first time I wouldn’t be reading
textbooks summarizing chosen Western
thought to me I would be reading the
books themselves the reading list was
diverse and difficult and I found that
when I arrived my problems while
interacting with these works at first as
a freshman were the exact same as I had
had on the ship
I had trouble indulging in these
thoughts on ancient philosophy and
science because I had no frame of
reference for them I a judgmental
attitude couldn’t work their complexity
made them unsuitable and so I found
myself stuck I found that there is a
moment of decision we have when we
decide whether or not to respect and
learn from a new perspective and idea
very similar to choosing whether or not
to step off a boat and explore a new
land we can decide that the new idea is
ludicrous
and sail away such as when the ancient
astronomer Ptolemy said that the earth
is clearly in the center of the solar
system and universe and gives pages of
proof as to why if we know knowing what
we know now and we look at this we can
ignore it and move on but if we continue
studying this work and look forward at
what he did to come to these conclusions
and the work he did after we are given
the most incredible amount of ancient
geometry and the foundation for how many
of us in the Western world understood
our place in the larger cosmos at this
pivotal moment of decision I feel we are
inevitably visited by a nuisance of a
figure behind our shoulder that begins
muttering disapprovingly saying things
like oh we don’t have the time to
consider this silly new opinion right
now or that we’re too tired at the
moment I found that as I practiced
saying Schuster’s character I could make
trips further and further along and as I
kept going along the muttering got more
aggressive the questions became ruder
asking where the idea came from who said
the idea what mistakes have they made
why should we bother listen to listening
to the politics of a stranger
as I went along and I got better I found
that I never regretted the indulgences I
made into these ancient thoughts
I only ever regretted my inability to go
further from my comfort zone and so with
practice remarkable ancient thoughts
that once seemed silly at first glance
became easier to entertain and then
enjoy and then love the ludicrous became
interesting then reasonable then
unspeakably brilliant I found that the
most life-changing advice always
required from me the most Trust and
willing participation before they
yielded up their rewards so now as I
enter my junior year I think I’m doing
better I’m still generalized a bit too
much but it’s getting better if I could
give advice to myself five years ago I
would say to be enormous ly careful of
when you decided that a new idea is too
silly to be considered further
considering strange new ideas should be
considered in exercise and for as long
as we are out of shape we risk traveling
far and wide and only seeing and hearing
what we expected to find with these old
thoughts and these new thoughts it
became a matter of practice to see how
far I could go into them and I found
that whenever we have the choice we must
treat these new thoughts with both with
both the most respect and the most
indulgence that we possibly can for
every new idea or every old idea thank
you
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
hello I was fortunate enough to take two
semesters abroad before I finished high
school I went on the semester at sea
program which provides classes aboard a
ship as it sails across the world I
would do my classwork and then someone
would paste Italy onto the ocean outside
and I had four days to run about and
absorb as much as I could before it was
replaced the next week with Croatia and
for a while that was my life and it was
magical and I loved every moment but
after the 12th week on my second voyage
I was quite suddenly exhausted grateful
of course but tired so I began
travelling badly I would look outside
and see the new world and immediately
began judging the area I would compare
it to other countries and rank aspects
of it and lists I had made up I wasn’t
learning
I was categorizing the cause of this
judgmental attitude I feel was a
microcosm for what many of us
experienced over many years we reach a
point where we are tired or just
arrogant and we – now a lot of incoming
signal I found that in understanding why
I did this myself that I was
disregarding news articles that
suggested they might disagree with me or
even advice from close friends and while
this attitude can be enormous ly useful
if we want to get work done quickly it
can be difficult to reverse this habit
when new information comes along that
could broaden our perspectives
I found help for this problem in my
studies at Saint John’s College which
provides a unique curriculum called the
great books program it demands reading a
large amount of the greatest Western
works from the last 2,500 years from
math to theology to science
Theology I was interested because for
the first time I wouldn’t be reading
textbooks summarizing chosen Western
thought to me I would be reading the
books themselves the reading list was
diverse and difficult and I found that
when I arrived my problems while
interacting with these works at first as
a freshman were the exact same as I had
had on the ship
I had trouble indulging in these
thoughts on ancient philosophy and
science because I had no frame of
reference for them I a judgmental
attitude couldn’t work their complexity
made them unsuitable and so I found
myself stuck I found that there is a
moment of decision we have when we
decide whether or not to respect and
learn from a new perspective and idea
very similar to choosing whether or not
to step off a boat and explore a new
land we can decide that the new idea is
ludicrous
and sail away such as when the ancient
astronomer Ptolemy said that the earth
is clearly in the center of the solar
system and universe and gives pages of
proof as to why if we know knowing what
we know now and we look at this we can
ignore it and move on but if we continue
studying this work and look forward at
what he did to come to these conclusions
and the work he did after we are given
the most incredible amount of ancient
geometry and the foundation for how many
of us in the Western world understood
our place in the larger cosmos at this
pivotal moment of decision I feel we are
inevitably visited by a nuisance of a
figure behind our shoulder that begins
muttering disapprovingly saying things
like oh we don’t have the time to
consider this silly new opinion right
now or that we’re too tired at the
moment I found that as I practiced
saying Schuster’s character I could make
trips further and further along and as I
kept going along the muttering got more
aggressive the questions became ruder
asking where the idea came from who said
the idea what mistakes have they made
why should we bother listen to listening
to the politics of a stranger
as I went along and I got better I found
that I never regretted the indulgences I
made into these ancient thoughts
I only ever regretted my inability to go
further from my comfort zone and so with
practice remarkable ancient thoughts
that once seemed silly at first glance
became easier to entertain and then
enjoy and then love the ludicrous became
interesting then reasonable then
unspeakably brilliant I found that the
most life-changing advice always
required from me the most Trust and
willing participation before they
yielded up their rewards so now as I
enter my junior year I think I’m doing
better I’m still generalized a bit too
much but it’s getting better if I could
give advice to myself five years ago I
would say to be enormous ly careful of
when you decided that a new idea is too
silly to be considered further
considering strange new ideas should be
considered in exercise and for as long
as we are out of shape we risk traveling
far and wide and only seeing and hearing
what we expected to find with these old
thoughts and these new thoughts it
became a matter of practice to see how
far I could go into them and I found
that whenever we have the choice we must
treat these new thoughts with both with
both the most respect and the most
indulgence that we possibly can for
every new idea or every old idea thank
you
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
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